Ukraine applies to join Pacific trade pact, Japan says

Ukraine has submitted to New Zealand an application to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, Japan’s economic revitalization minister Shigeyuki Goto said Friday.

The submission came ahead of a ministerial meeting of the trade pact’s 11 member countries to be held in the New Zealand city of Auckland on July 15 and 16.

Goto, who is in charge of Japan’s negotiations for the TPP, confirmed the application in a news conference, saying Japan as a member of the regional free trade deal “needs to carefully assess whether Ukraine can fully meet the high levels of the deal.”

New Zealand, which ...